A personal exploration into historical and current forms of philosophy, always with an eye towards understanding the why of life.

04 December 2014

Fear

Thomas Hobbes's theory of fear, boiled down, is that the power of a government is not only a source of fear, but it's tool. But what if fear is lost? What becomes of the government then? Revolution?

Here in the US there are nightly protests in over 170 cities because several grand juries have failed to indict police officers when there was certainly enough evidence. In the US system, an indictment simply means there may be attributable guilt. Putting aside the Ferguson fiasco, in NYC the coroner labeled the death of Eric Garner a homicide. And still the grand jury did not indict.

Black persons are 21x more likely to be shot than whites. This is not a coincidence. Minorities in the US have never enjoyed the freedoms of white persons. By not indicting police officers, the government increases the fear, hence the control. It makes people more distrustful of the justice system. Makes white persons dependent on the divide. Fear.

Except that fear is crumbling. These protests are not violent, but could turn that way very quickly. If it does what then?

Curiously the President, and even Congress, have been mostly mute. Its as though they realize that their hold on the reigns of fear are now tenuous. The protests grow. The government is taking the wait and see stance, because it is a proven tactic. Ignore the problem long enough and the media will too. That is the fear they use now to maintain control.